1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an escape chute which is equipped at an upper part of a high building having 3 to 10 floors so as to permit the escape of persons from the building in an emergency such as a fire or earthquake.
The escape chute of the present invention is located at a rooftop or a relatively upper part of the building so as to hang down from the building.
The body of the escape chute has double tubular inner and outer cylinders made of cloth and a spiral slide cloth which is sewed between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder to form a spiral slide surface. In order to enter into the space between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder of the escape chute on the spiral slide surface from intermediate floors, intermediate access apertures are formed on the side surface of the outer cylinder and the intermediate access apertures are constructed so as to permit safe escape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been known to use a slide type escape chute which is positioned aslant from an emergency exit such as a window to the ground so as to permit persons to slide down and it has been also known to use an escape chute comprising a framework projected in a horizontal direction from the emergency exit of the building and a tubular body which is hung down from the framework so as to permit persons to slide down with means for controlling the falling speed of the persons. These escape chutes have been used in practice.
The former type slide is the same as a conventional slide whereby all kinds of persons such as old and young, male and female, can easily use it. However, it is deployed aslant whereby it is necessary to have a wide space around the building, and the bottom of the escape chute must be fixed on the ground so as to keep aslant.
The latter type escape chute requires only a small space. However, the descent passage is vertical whereby the feeling of diving into a deep hole is given, causing fear, whereby it is difficult to attain speedy escape, and the braking effect of the descent speed controlling means is variable depending upon the size of the persons.
On the other hand, in the field of the escape instruments of ships, it has been known to use escape instruments having a spiral slide surface as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,323, and which has been used in practice. The escape instruments have a slide surface for sliding down and are not held aslant whereby they are advantageous from the viewpoint of space. However, in these type escape instruments, an expandable air bag system is used whereby these escape instruments having an air bag system are not desirable as the escape instruments for burning buildings.
The inventors have considered, prepared, and studied various escape chutes made of cloth which have a spiral slide surface as the escape instrument in ships, but without any expandable air bag, as shown in FIG. 1.
The original escape chute will be illustrated referring to FIG. 1 wherein the reference numeral (1) designates a high building, (3) designates a framework which can be horizontally projected from a rooftop of the building (1) and (10) designates a body of the escape chute which is thrown down by an apparatus (not shown) to be held by the framework (3) and has an inner cylinder (11) made of cloth and an outer cylinder (12) made of cloth and has a spiral slide cloth (14) in the space between the inner and outer cylinders to form a slide surface. An upper entrance (15) is formed at the top of the slide cloth (14) and an exit (17) is formed at the bottom. Intermediate entrance tubular passages (20) are formed for entering from intermediate floors. One end of the intermediate entrance tubular passage (20) is sewed to connect it to the peripheral part of an aperture (18) which is formed at the side surface of the outer cylinder (12) corresponding to the window (2) in the intermediate floor. The other end of the intermediate entrance passage is fixed inside of the window of the building by various manners so as to form the passage.
Guide ropes (21) are disposed at the inner upper part of the intermediate entrance passage (20) with slack.
When the escape of persons is started in an emergency such as a fire in the building, the escape chute having the above-mentioned structure is thrown down to hang, and the intermediate entrance passages (20) are respectively fixed to the corresponding windows (2) as shown in FIG. 1, and the persons enter from the upper entrance (15) through the step type framework (3), or the persons pass through the intermediate entrance passages (20) from the windows (2) to reach the slide cloth (14) and slide on the slide cloth (14) to reach the exit (17) at the bottom and to escape.
However, the inventors have further studied and found the following disadvantages.
(i) A person sliding on the spiral slide cloth may become hung up at the intermediate access apertures.
(ii) An escape chute should be held away from the outer wall of a building so as to prevent the collision on the wall of the building. The intermediate entrance passages can not be connected to the corresponding windows in the intermediate floors in advance. Accordingly, the intermediate entrance passage is sometimes disposed in the opposite direction from the corresponding window because of the effects of wind etc. during development, whereby it takes a long time for disposing the intermediate entrance passage near the window and fixing it to the window. Sometimes, it is difficult to dispose the intermediate entrance passage near the window.
(iii) When an obstacle is disposed such as a parked automobile, or a raw material, a machine is left, or if a heavy snow is fallen on the ground below the escape chute, the bottom of the escape chute is received by the obstacle to form a slack part whereby the exit at the bottom is closed and the escape in an emergency is prevented.